Q. How do the Cunninghams pay their debts? ... They don't pay their debts back. Atticus pays their debts for them.

Do the Cunninghams pay back their debts?

Most of these goods are of very little value, but they are indicative of the Cunningham's desire to be respectable and pay their debts. As Scout tries to explain to her out-of-town teacher, Miss Caroline: The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back—no church baskets and no scrip stamps.

How do the Cunninghams pay their debts *?

They pay with food and crops that they grow on their farm. In the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird,” The Cunningham's pay their debts by giving people things like wood and nuts and potatoes that they have grown themselves as they have no money and live off the land.